What happened?

Sorry for the lack of updates, did I mention that October was a busy month for me? Perhaps I can bang this out while waiting for the paint to dry on my daughter's Halloween costume. She's going as an ice cube and one of her friends is going as a penguin. I'll take pictures.
Today is the third or fourth day of rain here in central Texas. We caught the edge of Hurricane Patricia and consider ourselves lucky. We're still looking at the news feeds to see how bad the damage was. If the rains continue, things will be problematic. Mudslides, flash floods. The power has gone off a few times, but so far nothing more annoying then resetting all the clocks. As I said, lucky.

My daughter is going to experience a not so pleasant right of passage tomorrow. A friend of hers died in an automobile accident last week and the funeral services are tomorrow. We all feel the loss for the Wood family. Through tear stained eyes I've watched my daughter go through the stages of grief in private this week. As parents we can comfort and offer support, but it in no way diminishes the loss that occurred.
I'm supposed to be good with words and perhaps offer some consolation to those close to Katrina, but it seems that anything I say would fall short. Her star was snuffed out before she had a chance to shine. There was no malice, no ill-intent. Three people lost their lives last Saturday. Wrong place, wrong time. The only thought I return to was one written by Christopher Reeve in his book Still Me, "Accidents happen for no reason."
Knowing what I know as an adult, a parent, lives can be taken in an instant. It shouldn't have to happen to children, but sadly it does. When my mom dropped me off for school, she always ended our conversations with, 'I love you'. At the time I thought she was trying to reaffirm herself. After all, I was young, immortal and bulletproof. Why would I need to hear those words?
Time has a way of playing some pretty cruel jokes on us foolish mortals. Now I say the same three words to my kids as I drop them off for school. Buried deep in my subconscious fears, I hope those are not the last words I will speak to my children.  

I can't complain but sometimes I still do

This week was hectic, but not pull out your hair insane. We're gearing up for Christmas. The way this works is that I'm doing double workloads from now until about, oh say, Black Friday. Two appliance trucks, double the regular truckloads. Three or four pallets of paint normally get delivered? Try eight on for size.
One more reason to get on with my life.
I try and not think of the amount of merchandise, that line of thinking paralyzes. Instead I break it down into things I can handle.
Some Jehovah's witnesses paid me a visit while I was busy scanning things in. Honestly, don't they have some one else to bother? I'm trying to work here. It was pretty awkward and uncomfortable. Whenever they whipped out their Jesus tablets, I changed the subject. I walked them to the door and they gave me a CD of an ASL bible. Just what I need, a coaster for my coffee mug.
My understanding is Jehovah's witnesses MUST go out and spread the word. Here's an observation: If you are trying to brainwash convert people, you are really trying to convince yourself. I've heard the arguments and I'm convinced it's a cult, not an actual religion. Your status in the church is dependent on how much money you donate. All this talk about Levels in the 'church'... It's one big airplane scheme! Don't worry, I hold the same disdain for those batshit insane Scientologists. (Started by a sci-fi writer no less!) Google Squirrel Busters if you want to see some crazy.
If you get some deeper meaning out of it, fine. Keep it to yourself. Wave it in my face and we are going to have a problem. My moral compass is fine and I don't need any version of a book written two thousand years ago to tell me right from wrong.

As if I wasn't busy enough

October is the busiest time of the year if you are a band parent. Marching contests. Friday night football games. We are 0-5 so far. Not very promising. I'm considering suggesting the marching band and starting lineup change places. Anything would be better.
The wife and I went to Seguin, about thirty miles away from San Antonio. There we spent time at Texas Mead Works. Primarily we discussed starting a business of producing mead.
The informal tastings I've held, friends and neighbors whom I've shared with have been giving me great feedback. Believe it or not, I think I'm getting a following. People are asking me when the next batch is out and what am I making now. That's been a running battle because I want to please people and I want my mead to be the best it can be.
What I discovered was I need to let my product age more. Patience was never my thing. I thought I was being good by letting it age a year. Now a guy who makes mead the way I like to tells me to double that. Age it two years. On the plus side, he likes my Serrano pepper mead.
We crunched the numbers and I'm writing up a detailed business plan to create a stand alone meadery, not part of a winery or brewery. What's funny is that we may have to improve the house before sweet smells start coming out of the garage. The wiring would have to support the equipment and machinery needed. Looks like I'd gut the garage and rebuild it from the ground up. A water line with filtration system. Insulation for temperature control. Air conditioning at the very least. The meadery tour I took had a walk in refrigerator. Sounds like I would almost be better off finding a warehouse to rent. Well, I haven't discounted it. We're looking into business loans. The first one I ran into they said up front the interest rate would be 9%. That's more than my house. Thank you, No.
So let's assume I get a large stainless steel cooker and two-100 gallon fermenting vats into my garage. (There's also a bottling machine, filtration system and label maker, but lets not get ahead of ourselves.)
One thought I had was to get a large shed in the backyard for bottling and storage. I'd also run my test batches out there. Sorry to say, but this 'hobby' is taking over the house. Time for it to move out on it's own. If you drew a triangle from Austin to San Antonio and Houston, there are four meaderies in that area. A few more meaderies exist up near Dallas, but that's not too important to this story. Texas Mead Works grew out of Blue lotus winery. Run by Mike and Melissa Poole, they make mead the way I make it, except on a much larger scale. They're good people and I hope to get to know them better. They are an inspiration to me.
Then there are the other fine mead makers. Enchanted Manor is also a winery that makes the mead for the Texas Renaissance Festival. Rohan Meadery is a winery, apiary, and working farm. I'm itching to go out there one weekend.
Then there is Griffin Meadery out in Willis, Texas, just north of Houston.
I'm sensing a theme here. Several names of what to call ourselves have been bandied about. The one we are leaning towards is Centaur Meads or Centaur Meadery. 

The American Mead Makers Association first annual report states that in 2012 sale of mead was $48,624. In 2013 sales jumped to 112,000. That's a 130% increase!
The 2015 report states there are 236 wineries that make at least one mead. Stand alone meaderies number around 150. The reporting is a little spotty because there are around 42 meaderies in development. I'd like to imagine I'm in that number, but I doubt anyone knows we exist yet. Sales for 2014 increased by 42% which is still pretty impressive and they had a lot more data to work with.
There are finer points to work on. Legislative definitions of what we do and produce. Carbonated/non-carbonated, single digit alcohol levels vs. double digit ABV. 
Once you get the basics down, you can make mead taste like nearly anything. There is a trend among craft brewers to use hops in the cooking process. This makes the mead taste like an IPA. Add to the predilection of craft breweries kegging and carbonating their mead, well, it tastes like very expensive beer. If I want beer, I'll buy or make a beer.
Centaur Meadery will make mead that looks like wine, but tastes infinitely better and about the same ABV as wine.
In my business plan I referred to myself as the Willi Wonka of meads. That's not an empty boast. Sweet, spicy, tart or tangy and anything in between. I suppose I could do sour too, but I'm going to make what tastes good. My first professional batch will be a traditional mead so as not to scare folks off.

A day off from my weekend off?

So Friday I had about a dozen or so people try my mead and I got great feedback. Saturday I made three test batches of pear, blueberry, and pear/blueberry combo mead.

First two

There was a slight hitch with the third. My first mead related yeast eruption.
When making beer, the first 24 hours (12 actually) are the worst. Explosion seems like too powerful a word. It goes off like a baking soda volcano. Several times I've gotten angry texts from my wife about the mess my hobby is making and how she has to clean it up.

You are so sleeping on the couch tonight

This wasn't as bad and it's a good thing I like the smell of blueberries.

Not as bad as it looks

It was shortly after that the wife discovered her windshield had been broken.
It turns out the kid across the street was playing with his friends, a football got thrown, someone dove for the catch. Her car was there to break his fall. The fact that he didn't come to us right away when it happened is something his parents will surely drill into him. I spoke to the mom this morning and asked her if she or her son had seen anything yesterday. Not thirty minutes later, mom is bringing her son over by his arm. "My son has something to tell you." He apologized profusely.

Ouch

This is what insurance is for and luckily they will be out on Monday to replace it. We won't be out of pocket, so I can afford to be forgiving.
I ended the conversation with something like; "Part of being a man is owning up to your responsibilities, even when it's an accident. Another part of being a man is recognizing it as an accident and forgiving the person who wronged you."
If I'm any judge of character, the Dad across the street is going to have a heart-to-heart with his son. There might be a grounding involved for not coming forward, but that's not up to me. I consider this resolved and I'm sure it won't happen again.

Back to bottle cleaning duty. The less glamorous side of home brewing. Over 70 wine bottles of various shapes and colors are now lining my garage shelves. Boy it's nice when friends come through like that.

Should of gone with a panoramic shot

I still had to bottle my Oktoberfest beer. Clean. Sterilize. Boil. Seal with a bottle cap. And all before losing the light. Did I mention I do most of this outdoors?
Cars with their headlights on were driving by as I busily cleaned the buckets and brew equipment. No photo of that, sorry. I was a bit busy.
Hungry, tired, sore, and tomorrow I get to go to my Clark Kent job before sunrise! 
Right now I don't know if I'm going to stay up for the lunar eclipse. I'll try but no promises.

Expectation exceeding hopes

That's just a working title post until I can sort things out in my head. It may make it to the end when I hit the publish key, I dunno. There is an office down town for entrepreneurs and start up companies called Geekdom. Tonight they hosted a board game night where nerds of all flavors can get together and have a bit of fun. Make friends, learn a new game, and have a few laughs. A good time is had by all.
There's also a happy sort of serious going on. This is an excellent way to break the ice with techies and people from all walks of life. Fantastic networking possibilities. No one is going to blow your horn for you. (That came out bad... Let me try again.) The best way to promote your business is to give yourself some visibility in some way. 'Oh, I didn't know you did this!' and, 'Did you make this yourself?'
In the back of my mind, I thought they'd stop me from bringing my mead in and setting up an informal tasting. This was one of those times I was happy to be wrong.
Of the three bottles I brought, I didn't think I'd have many takers on the Serrano pepper mead. Another thing I was happy to be mistaken about. They nearly polished it off.
As they listened to my spiel about what mead was and all the talking points, the phrase, 'I'd buy this.', was heard more than once. More importantly, I heard, 'You have to talk to this guy...'
Yes, we exchanged cards and numbers. One girl asked me to pose for a picture with my mead bottles. I'll take that one at face value. More importantly we tried to set up a meeting between me and a few people who help others set up businesses. It looks legit and they seemed genuinely interested in helping me get started. The one question that comes to mind is this: Is this the best way to go about starting a business? I have friends who own businesses. One in particular owns two liquor stores, so you might say our interests might align in some respect. As loathe as I am to admit it, I most certainly qualify as disabled and there are ways for disabled business owners to get started. I'm going to have to look that one up. I've only heard rumors and I'd need some hard facts behind it before I cross that bridge.
Came across this article a week ago about the growth in the mead and craft brew business. Definitely worth a read.
Well, it's late and I have to get an early start tomorrow. I've three test batches to start. For those eagerly awaiting friends, these won't be ready until spring, March or April at least. After tonight I've moved two recipes up to the five gallon status. I've had to learn patience in order to do this, so can you guys who want to be beta testers. Wanna know the worst part? I had another idea for a recipe while I was networking with these folks.

One of the good secrets

Here is another review of deaf friendly places here in San Antonio. Like the name suggests, The Magnolia Pancake Haus serves breakfast and brunch. The Germanic spelling of the word house... I don't know what is up with that. Perhaps it is the European cooking style of the quiche or the eggs Benedict. Perhaps it's a nod to the decor of the restaurant. In any case, the food is awesome. There isn't a bad thing on the menu. Yelp has some good things to say. There is no wrong choice. When I want to impress someone from out of town, we take them here. Now with a place this good, there is a downside: the wait to get in. It fills up fast. My wife had to drop off her car at the dealership for a repair. Being 8:15 on a Saturday and the restaurant was only a few miles away, we took a chance we could get a seat in a decent time. We did, only 10 minutes, but the line sure got long fast. By 8:45 the wait was almost an hour long. This is one of those places you want to get ready to visit the night before. With that in mind, this is where you want to go. Load up Google map the night before.
Now for my deaf friends: take off your hearing aids. With this many people, there is a lot of noise to deal with. There is a bit of elbow room to sign and the booths are big enough that no one is blocked in. Plus the place has these big windows in front so it's well illuminated. The staff is friendly enough, but you will have to point to the menu and perhaps get a little help from a hearing person. Would you like hash browns? Yes. 
Coffee? Hell, yes!
I can best describe the place as a country tea room. Lots of knick-knacks on the walls in a pleasant tasteful way. It is downright relaxing and a great way to start your day.
Knowing that they have a good thing going, they have an app that gives you the wait time and lets you know when your table is ready called Nowait app. You can type in the restaurant and the rest is history. One less thing to worry about. 
On my Yelp review of the place I made an observation and I'll share it here. I've never understood why people take pictures of their food until I ate at the pancake haus. The meals are works of art. In fact, I was tempted to pull out my iPhone and snap a picture before digging in to my omelet. I can now tell my nieces and nephews I did indeed have green eggs and ham, and I loved it!

Neglecting a promise

In the interest of changing things up, I promised to write about Deaf friendly businesses in my town. So if you don't live in San Antonio or are not hearing impaired, this might not be relevant to you.
The Tip Top Cafe first came to my attention when it was featured in Diners, Drive-ins and Dives on the Food Network. The original restaurant is at 2814 Fredericksburg rd. on the west side of San Antonio. Two or three times I've eaten there I have not been disappointed. It has been described as comfort food or going to your grandmothers house. My only criticism of the place is that it is too small a building to handle such a loyal following of patrons. So it was with great joy when I discovered a second location was opening on my side of town and near my neighborhood! The second location is at 13835 Nacogdoches rd. on the east side of San Antonio.
It is to be expected that there are things to be ironed out when a new place opens. Waiting for the reviews and talking to friends I got a good measure of where the restaurant stood. After all, the new place had big shoes to fill compared to the parent restaurant. I'm trying to be fair here. My visit was at 6:00 on a Friday. I found a seat at one of the widest counters I've encountered. Reaching across it would be hard, at a guess it would be easily four feet.
At least 22 tables and nearly all full. I'd just beaten the dinner rush.
The menu is here. The Yelp reviews are here. The fare is average. If I had two of the same dishes side by side, one from the original and the other from the new place, the first entree would stand out more. Simply put: the new place is a pale reflection of the original restaurant. Service was prompt and friendly. (Thanks Emilee!) The prices are fair, but the kitchen needs to step up it's game if it is going to be worthy of the name of it's predecessor. A tall order indeed.
But here is where it's different in a positive way. Wide open space with plenty of elbow room and lines of sight. This is important for communicating in ASL. Two big screen TVs that the staff was more than happy to put captions on for me. It did take them a bit to figure out how, but they got it done after a few tries. (Thanks Josh!) The whole dining area is well lit and bright. On the whole, the place was noisy and I had to turn my implant way down in order not to have some aspirin with my dessert. My recommendation is to turn off your hearing aids and implants. Less headache and more enjoyment that way.
There is one way the new place is on par with the original. Pies baked on the premises. Mile high meringue! The pecan pie I had for dessert was tasty, light and not overly sweet. You know how some pies can give you cavities by looking at it? Not so in this case. I will be back to try a new pie for dessert. Spot on Tip Top!
I love my chicken fried steak and gravy, so they better be ready. I found the service very good and I felt comfortable being there. The staff was kind and helpful when I ordered my meal. A good friendly server staff can cover many overall shortcomings in a restaurant, such is the case here. The deaf man says give 'em both a try and see what I'm talking about.